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Vampires
Vampires are both a class and a type of undead. The creature commonly thought of as vampire has its roots in the 1819 novella The Vampyre. This vampire is a nocturnal, pale-skinned, fanged undead who drinks blood and can turn into a bat. However, this vampire's traits are collected from a huge palette of vampiric creatures mainly from Europe, which collectively have come to be called vampires too. Etymology It is unknown where the roots of the word "vampire" lie. Several theories have been developed, but the one regarded as most likely is that the word, in the sense of its current meaning, has its origins in Slavic Europe. Then, either it goes back all the way to the proto-Slavic languages from before the seventh century, or it was taken by the Slavic people from the Turkic people and is an adaption of "ubyr", the Turkic word for "witch". Following the popularization of vampires in horror stories in the early 19th century, the word "vampire" has been adapted to represent two monster definition. Primarily, "vampire" refers to the common Western idea of a blood-sucking undead with fangs and a dislike for sunlight. Secondarily, the word can be used to describe the collective of vampiric creatures abundantly present in the mythology of about every culture. In this sense, the word is a little arbitrarily applied. A vampire of this kind is not required to drink blood, only to feed on something either the living or the pure possess. However, monsters like zombies, which eat brains, are generally not regarded as being covered by the second definition of "vampire". Vampire origins and variations Due to the immense variety of vampiric creatures, it is impossible to say where the concept of vampires originated, if it originated in one spot and from one source at all. Still, at least European vampires are commonly thought to have their roots in two observations: decomposition and disease. When life functions cease, decomposition sets in. This humans have always known. What humans not have always known is why and how this happens. Two bodies buried at the same time decompose differently depending on the differences between the condition of the bodies, the soil, the temperature, and a number of other factors. As such, on occasions where bodies were dug up, sometimes one body or a few would not look as decomposed as the rest or as what people expected them to be. In fact, due to formation of decomposition gasses, bodies can appear "well-fed", and those some gases can increase the internal pressure of the body and force blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. Following this, if a hole is poked into the body, as with a stake, the escaping gases can produce a sound as if sighing or groaning. Moreso, when a body decomposes, its fluids evaporate, causing loss of skin mass. As such, nails and hair can appear to have grown a while after the body stopped working, simply because the skin has pulled back. Observations like these would give the impression that the deceased had been active until dug up and finished for good. Another common theme with early vampire lore is disease, specifically easily transmittable ones. A theme of vampirism itself is that it is a transmittable condition no one but the depraved wants to have, setting up a comparison between the ravenous reanimated corpse that works under the cover of night and a highly contagious disease to people who have no knowledge of the existence or workings of bacteria and virusses. Specifically, vampirism is compared to rabies and tuberculosis. Rabies is a contagious disease that affects both human and animals and is often transmitted through biting, since the virus is highly present in the infected's saliva. This is due to the virus increasing the salivary glands's activity, which itself can result in frothing around the mouth. At first this is saliva, but as the infected's condition worsens, tissue becomes weaker and blood can pour through into the froth. Rabies also affects the central nervous system and causes inflammation of the brain, thus accounting for a wide range of behavioral changes the infected can go through in later stages of the disease, such as nocturnal activity, introversion, increased sexuality, and aggression. Finally, rabies makes the senses more sensitive, thus sometimes causing its patients to avoid bright light and noise or things that smell and taste strongly. Tuberculosis's link with vampirism is mostly and English association, where they noted that if someone died from it, that person's relatives would lose their health slowly and eventually die too. As such, the first to die was thought to be draining their family's life from beyond the grave. Looking at the modern image of a vampire, most details of the monster can be linked to these observations.t When the word "vampire" comes up, the common image that appears is that of a deceased human with pale skin, red eyes, and fangs, and possibly pointy ears and claws. Vampires are nocturnal creatures who sleep in their coffins by day and are harmed by sunlight. They cannot cross running water or go into a house uninvited, are repelled by garlic and crosses, are harmed by holy water and fire, have no reflection and sometimes no shadow either, and need to be killed by a stake through the heart or decapitation. On the other hand, vampires can change into bats or a variety of other animals or even fog. They can hypnotize people, have improved strength and agility, and do not age. They require blood as nourishment and usually bite people's necks to acquire the blood. Depending on fiction and circumstances, the victim dies, becomes a vampire themself, or becomes a semi-dead servant of the vampire. Many of these traits have been taken from the rich diversity of vampiric creatures spoken of in European cultures, though vampiric creatures are by no means monsters exclusive to Europe. A selection of vampires other than 'modern' vampires is described below to give an idea of the world-wide variety. The nachzehrer is a German vampire. The name translates to "afterwards devourer", which refers to the nachzehrer's tendency to eat parts of its own body, an act through which energy is drained from the nachzehrers' relatives. When nothing more can be eaten without handicapping the nachzehrer, the nachzehrer rises and starts feeding on both corpses and the living people they can get their hands on. A nachzehrer has the ability to turn themself into a pig and by ringing the bells in a church belfry, they can bring death to all who hear. Nachzehrers cannot create other nachzehrers, and new nachzehrers rise up at random, although removing the name of the deceased from their burial clothing is a guarantee they wouldn't turn into a nachzehrer. A nachzehrer can be rendered immobile by placing clumps of earth under their chin, placing a coin or stone in their mouth, or tying a handkerchief tightly around their neck. To permanently get rid of them, the nachzehrer has to be beheaded, a long spike has to be driven all the way through the head, or the tongue has to be fixed into place. The sampiro is an Albanian vampire. It is completely wrapped up in its burial shroud or other flowing pieces of fabric, giving it an appearance not unlike a ghost's. The only part clearly visible are the sampiro's glowing eyes which pierce from the darkness under their hood. Sampiros also wear very high heels, which makes a characteristic tapping noise as the creatures follow their prey. The high heels also make sampiros sway ominously. Another sound produced by sampiros is the smacking of lips in anticipation of their meal. Adding to their creepy apparition is that sampiros are prone to come out when there's fog. However, sampiros are not all that dangerous, as they nourish on fear almost as much as blood and only take a little bit from their victim. Only when a sampiro chooses to visit a particular victim multiple times is their a chance of death. Sampiros do not create other sampiros. Traditionally, any person whom Albanian society at large doesn't like is prone to become a sampiro after death. The wampir/vieszcy/upierczi is a Russian and Polish vampire that looks very much human. Instead of fangs, the upierczis have stingers under their tongues with which they pierce skin to get to the blood. Upierczis have the ability to cause droughts. Their time of activity starts at noon and ends at midnight. New upierczis come into existence from the deceased who committed suicide, died a particular violent death, or practiced witchcraft during life. Upierczis can be destroyed by being drowned in fresh water (possibly salt water too), but the safest option is to burn them. When burned, the upierczi's body will burst open as hundreds of small, disgusting animals (maggots, rats, etc.) jump out. All of these have to be killed too, or else the upierczi can resurrect themself. The jiang shi (Chinese)/gangshi (Korean)/kyonshī (Japanese) is more akin to a zombie than a vampire, but it does have vampiric traits and modern adaptions tend to emphasize this comparison. Traditionally, jiang shi are corpses reanimated due to a person's qi not leaving the body fully or the body being buried in a qi-rich environment. Jiang shis have long white hair, long black fingernails, a lolling black tongue, anda greenish skin, the latter of which is to be blamed on the growth of moss. Due to rigor mortis, they cannot move their limbs very well, hence their name, which translates to "stiff corpse". In order to move around, jiang shis hop. A good protection against jiang shis is thus to make the doorway a bit lower so they can't hop into the house. Jiang shis are not intelligent and only act on their need to feed. Traditionally, spells can make a jiang shi more manageable, though the usage of an ofuda is a modern invention. Jiang shis feed on qi by sucking out breath, though can just as easily be destroyed if their breath is sucked out. Since jiang shi are blind, a person should stand still and hold their breath to prevent detection. Many modern interpretations of the jiang shi, though, have them feeding on blood like European vampires. A jiang shi can be scared off by their own reflection, and destruction happens with fire, peach wooden weaponry, or the nailing of jujube seeds into the acupoints on the jiang shi's back. The estrie is a Hebrew vampiric creature which is exclusively female. Rather than undeads, estries are humanlike demons or demonic humans. Estries feed on blood, but if they are injured by a human, they need to eat bread and salt given to them by that human in order to heal. Similarly, estries are not sensitive to religious symbols and can heal from injuries too if they can get a human to pray for them. Estries favor the night, but may not be bound to it like many other types of vampires. They can change form and favor the guise of a cat or owl. Estries can also fly in human form, but only if their hair is unbound. Estries are best destroyed by decapitation or burning, and if another method is used that does not damage the body too much, their mouths need to be closed or filled with dirt in order to prevent them from rising again. While traditionally not counted as vampires, the modern interpretation of succubi and incubi often has them as vampires on account that they prey on the living in a fashion not unlike the 'modern' vampire. The words "succubus" and "incubus" are Latin and respectively mean "person who lies under" and "person who lies on top", referring to traditional perceptions of which gender should be located where during intercourse. "Succubus" is actually a malformation of the original word "succuba", which indicates a female form. This and modern sentiments that people have the right to their own preferences have brought some to 'introduce' succubae and incubae - female versions of the redefined succubi and the incubi. The 'cube collective are demonic creatures rooted in the Abrahamic religions that feed on emotional and sexual energy. Commonly, they visit their victims at night. Their superior strength makes it easy to restrain their prey, accounting for the occurrence of sleep paralysis. Their is no specific way to destroy one of these creatures, but proper display of religion and religious artifacts will chase them off. Vampires in fiction Vampire lore has been around in almost every culture before being made famous by the Christian Church and other vampire literature. It was John Polidori's 1819 novella, The Vampyre, that set the stage for the suave, charismatic nobleman vampire, later inspiring the widely famous Bram Stoker novel, Count Dracula. Ancient legends The Vampire had several variations among cultures, but creatures of the night that fed on human's life sources have been around for ages. It was the Christian Church that established a norm for the vampire, an undead human who fed on blood, with many Christian and demonology subtexts. Popular culture Vampires have been a huge part of popular culture, with countless books, movies and games centering around them. Count Dracula is one of the most famous vampire novels, followed by other notable novels such as Varney the Vampire, a gothic horror story and Carmilla, a lesbian romance story. While Dracula saw the vampire as more of a contagious demon, Varney and Carmilla are seen in a more sympathetic light. Modern times have valuable contributions to the vampire phenomenon as well. Anne Rice's highly popular Vampire Chronicles, which draws prospects from more classical options, such as being harmed by Christian artifacts, garlic and sunlight. Probably the most famous (and infamous) vampire novel series is the ''Twilight'' series, which ignored the effects of crosses and garlic, and changed being harmed by sunlight to simply gliterring when exposed to it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_(film_series) Blade] films and the film Buffy the Vampire Slayer feature vampires as antagonists and expendable. The Vampire Diaries also features themes such as romance and sexuality into the gory subtext. Vampires in Monster High The Monster High vampires are Dracula and his adoptive daughter Draculaura, Gory Fangtell, Bram Devein, Justin Biter, and Valentine. According to Facebook, Draculaura has cousins living in Transylvania.Facebook entry of June 12, 2011 Vampires in Monster High draw many classical characteristics, such as pale skin, pointed ears and the lack of a reflection. While they still drink blood, it isn't as prominent of a need as seen in other fiction. It is mentioned they are an exclusively aristocratic race, relying on "inferior" monsters, such as zombies, to do work for them."Fright On!" While Draculaura, the main vampire in the series is seen as innocent, the other vampire characters are seen as cruel and haughty. Garlic seems to only makes vampires sick, and they're only more sensitive to the sun rather than being directly harmed by it. Draculaura uses factor 500 sun cream to protect herself agaisnt the sun.Scary Sun Notes References External links *The Shadowlands - Vampires *The Vampire Compendium *Sampiro at Vampires.com *GLOBAL VAMPIRES OF LEGEND & MYTH & GLOBAL VAMPIRES OF LEGEND & MYTH II Category:Monster history Category:Vampires